Mind-Body Therapy
The mind body connection
In this article, I hope I can give you some information, backed up by evidence-based research, about how the mind can affect the body, as well as convince you of the power that your mind has over your body.
If you are interested in more information, I have provided some links at the bottom of the page.
For thousands of years, people in the Eastern cultures have known that the mind and the body are intimately linked and have devised techniques that have treated the mind and the body as a whole.
In 1641, René Descartes, a philosopher and mathematician, was the first person to distinguish the difference between the mind and the brain and, ever since in Western cultures, the mind and the body have been studied as separate subjects.
The study of the body and the mind was separated in too many different fields: neurologists studied the brain, doctors the body, psychologists the mind, philosophers the thinking and religion the spirit.
It was left to complementary alternative therapies to study the link between the mind and the body, but until recently, they have not had much success at getting the public and the scientific community to take these forms of therapy seriously.
One thing these experts forget is that the medication given to clients is tested against a placebo, and in most cases, the medication is only slightly more effective than the placebo.
The term “placebo effect” was introduced by T.C. Graves in 1920, although it had been known about for many years.
The placebo effect shows from extensive research that if you expect a medication to work it is more likely to, even if it is only a sugar pill.
Some studies have been conducted, where heroin addicts were given injections of water instead of heroin and they did not suffer withdrawal symptoms until the injections were stopped.
In another study, people have been given placebo pills for pain control and it was discovered that the effectiveness of the placebo was dependent on the colour of the pill and its size.
Bruno Klopfer had a patient with cancer of the lymph nodes. Everything had been tried with little or no success and the patient had huge tumour masses throughout his body.
The patient had heard of a new drug called Krebiozen which Klopfer was researching and was put on it, even though it was still in its trial stages and only for use on patients with less then three months to live.
Within ten days, the tumours shrank dramatically and the patient went home and was able to fly his private plane.
Then, the AMA and FDA reported two months later that Krebiozen had no effect on cancer of the lymph nodes.
The patient soon suffered a relapse. Dr Klopfer decided to tell the patient he had a super-refined, double-strength Krebiozen that would produce better results, but it was actually sterile water.
This time, the patient’s recovery was even more remarkable. He remained symptom-free for two months.
Then, further stories of the AMA and FDA’s tests appeared in the press: “Nationwide tests show Krebiozen to be a worthless drug treatment of cancer.” Within a few days, the patient was dead.
In another study, asthma sufferers had their inhalers filled with water and seven out of ten experienced relief.
In another study, the placebo effect created the antibodies that they thought they were taking, and they experienced the side effects of the real treatment (Wolf and Pinsky).
People who have taken placebo pills have become addicted to them. In one extreme case, a patient took 10,000 in a year (Rhein 1980).
Dr Frederick Evans’ book “Placebo: Theory Research and Mechanism”, he says:
“………in other words, the effectiveness of a placebo compared to standard doses of different analgesic drugs under double blind circumstances seems to be relatively constant, this is indeed a rather remarkable and unique characteristic for any therapeutic agent. The effectiveness of the placebo is proportional to the apparent effectiveness of the active analgesic agent.
“It’s worth noting that 56% effectiveness ratio is not limited to comparing placebo with analgesics drugs, it is found in double blind studies of non-pharmacological insomnia treatment techniques (58%) and psychotropic drugs for the treatment of depression such as tricyclics (59%) and lithium (62%). Thus it appears that the placebo is about 55-60% as effective as active medications, irrespective of the potency of these active medications”
There is also the Nocebo effect, which is the opposite of the placebo, i.e. if you expect something negative to happen, your body can produce it.
In the 1940s, Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon found that people could die from voodoo if certain criteria were met. This is also called the nocebo effect.
In Ernest Rossi’s book, “Psychobiology of Mind Body Healing” (1993), he has a catalogue of maladies that may implicate three major body systems in the mind body healing system.
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Autonomic nervous system |
Endocrine system |
Immune system |
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Hypertension |
Adrenal gland secretion |
Common cold |
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Stress |
Diabetes |
Fever |
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Cardiac pain |
Ulcers |
Vaccines |
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Blood cell counts |
Gastric secretion and motility |
Asthma |
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Headaches |
Colitis |
Multiple Sclerosis |
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Pupillary Dillation |
Oral contraceptives |
Rheumatoid Arthritis |
|
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Menstrual pain |
Warts |
|
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Thyrotoxicosis |
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Walter Cannon also developed the theory of homeostasis, which means that a biological system will always try to find equilibrium between two states, so that the body stays in a stable constant condition.
For example, normal body temperature is 37 degrees. If we go above this level, we will sweat and blood will flow closer to the surface of the skin to bring your body back to a normal temperature. If we get cold, we will shiver and blood vessels will contract at the extremities of the body.
In 1964, George F. Solomon coined the term “psychoimmunology.”
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body.
PNI takes an interdisciplinary approach incorporating psychology, neuroscience, immunology, physiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, psychiatry, behavioural medicine, infectious diseases, endocrinology, and rheumatology.
This new area of research has shown that the nervous system, which is controlled by the brain, does affect the immune response.
Other research has shown that every cell in the body is connected to the brain, because every cell in the body is covered in neurotransmitters.
Norman Cousins, author of “Head First: The Biology of Hope and the Healing Power of the Human Spirit” had blood drawn and tested for blood levels and immune levels. Immediately afterwards, he meditated on peaceful feelings for one hour.
Afterwards, he had blood drawn and tested again, and it was shown that some of his immune factors went up 200%.
Some studies about multiple personalities show the amazing ability of the mind to change the body.
Dr. Bennet Braun has found that allergic reactions, reactions to alcohol and pharmacological drugs could change very rapidly when personalities switched.
Braun records a case in which 5 milligrams of diazepam, a tranquiliser, sedated one personality, while 100 milligrams had little or no effect on another.
There are accounts of multiples switching when they are anaesthetised and being operated on and the anaesthesia having no effect.
If the client changes from an adult personality to a child and has taken an adult dosage of medication, then it can result in an overdose for the child personality.
Other conditions that can vary from personality to personality include scars, burn marks, cysts, and left- and right-handedness, eyesight, eye colour, menstrual cycle, voice, diabetes and epilepsy.
In recent years, some highly respected scientists, such as Judith Swack, Candice Pert, Bruce Lipton and Ernest Rossi, have done research into the mind body connection.
Their research indicates that our thoughts have an influence on our bodies at the cellular level and that our genes are not pre-determined because they can be expressed in different ways.
You may find the following links interesting if you want to know more about mind body therapy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoneuroimmunology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind-body_problem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism_(philosophy_of_mind)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Descartes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_top_down_control_of_physiology
Bruce Lipton Ph.D. www.brucelipton.com
Judith Swack Ph.D. www.jaswack.com
Candice Pert Ph.D. www.candacepert.com
Ernest Rossi Ph.D. www.ernestrossi.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawkinsdotnet
